Well, I keep going on and on about the food. I hope I’m not being too boring. This post is mainly about what a great bargain it is. I don’t think I’m exaggerating too much to say it is about half the cost of food in the US, at least in the smaller cities and towns. This morning, here in Astorga, we found a bar/cafe/restaurant for breakfast that had the best coffee we’ve had so far. It was more expensive than usual: 1.30 euros. (1 euro right now $1.10.) So that makes the coffee roughly $1.50. In the states a coffee this good would be about $4.00, I think. This place actually advertised that they served “English breakfast” (as well as the typical coffee and a roll European breakfast) so we ordered that. We weren’t sure what it would include. Turned out to be two fried eggs, LOTS of bacon and sausage, bread, a generous glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice, and a coffee, all for 4.90 euros. Keep in mind any price I quote any time includes tax and tip. (Well, they don’t expect to the tipped here in Spain. Sometimes people leave a little extra change if they get some extra change after paying.)
This morning, when Charlie paid for our English breakfasts, he left a 2 euro tip just because it seemed so ridiculously inexpensive. He walked away and I saw the server look at the money he left on the counter and point it out to the other server/cook. They both looked over in our direction. I felt like we had done something wrong based on how they looked at us. I guess people might think that we assume they are needy. Waiters and waitresses in Spain get paid better than they do in the US and don’t depend on tips.
Yesterday we stopped at a bar/cafe and had fried eggs, toast, coffee and they also threw in some Spanish tortilla (omelette) and more bread and the total cost for BOTH of us was 7 euros. I don’t understand how they can make any money at these prices.
When you travel in Britain, staying at B&Bs, in rooms above pubs, small inns, historical hotels, and most hotels outside of the London area, breakfast is included in the room rate. Usually one of the options is “the full English” (in Scotland, it’s “the full Scottish,” which is essentially the same thing), and which we never order — far too big and far too greasy. It consists of fried eggs, bacon or sausage (or some equivalent — black pudding, yes!!), grilled tomato, sauteed mushrooms, baked beans, sometimes fried potatoes, toast and marmalade, and a pot of tea . Maybe the “English breakfast” on your Spanish menu was their take on this classic aimed at English pilgrims.
As for tipping… it is the same in Austria; you just leave any small change on the table. So your 4.90 Euros English Breakfast would have been 5.00 Euros, leaving the 10 Euro cents. What I’m wondering about is if credit card payment in general, and contactless payment in particular, has killed this tipping behavior? Wave the card over the card reader and the bill is paid… no change to leave. In America they seem to be dealing with this by bringing up a menu that says 10% tip, 15% tip, 20% tip, custom tip… which is good in its own way, though it defeats the idea of contactless payment, as you have to touch the screen and hit enter.
When we ordered the English breakfasts this morning, I said to Charlie, “I wonder if we’ll get some beans.” No beans, but we were pretty surprised to see all the bacon and sausage. Neither of us ate the sausage – – was just too much. We were totally surprised to see the fresh-squeezed orange juice and to find out the coffee was included. We only found out the price of the individual coffees when we went back later for a second cup.
Yes, tipping just doesn’t happen here when we pay with Charlie’s Apple Pay – – he just hovers his phone over their little machine. I know about what you mean in the states where you get presented with option how much to tip.